> Middle class people can take advantage of those investment returns as well.
By definition of the classes in a capitalist society, those who can fully take advantage of investment (capital) returns are the capitalist class. The petit bourgeoisie, or middle class, makes some return from capital, but that's limited (in the traditional definition, they are the ones who apply their own labor to their capital, though those dependent on selling wage labor who also have separate capital holdings that are inadequate without labor income for personal support are similarly situated.)
But the usual American definition of “middle class” isn't the Petit bourgeoisie, but some group around middle income, which is almost entirely composed of what are essentially pure wage-laborers without meaningful capital stocks who cannot take advantage, in any significant way, of investment returns.
It isn't true that they cannot take advantage, that was the entire point of what I was saying. They typically don't, but it isn't because of a lack of income. They're just spending almost all of it.
By definition of the classes in a capitalist society, those who can fully take advantage of investment (capital) returns are the capitalist class. The petit bourgeoisie, or middle class, makes some return from capital, but that's limited (in the traditional definition, they are the ones who apply their own labor to their capital, though those dependent on selling wage labor who also have separate capital holdings that are inadequate without labor income for personal support are similarly situated.)
But the usual American definition of “middle class” isn't the Petit bourgeoisie, but some group around middle income, which is almost entirely composed of what are essentially pure wage-laborers without meaningful capital stocks who cannot take advantage, in any significant way, of investment returns.